So I changed my cat's diet a few months ago to dry Natural Balance low calorie food because I heard they poop less on better food plus my cat is a little overweight. However, my cat seems to poop all the time! At least three times a day, maybe more. His poop is always pretty soft and wet (he doesn't cover it), and it really smells bad! Sorry to be graphic. Do you think this is normal or should I switch his food?

So I changed my cat's diet a few months ago to dry Natural Balance low calorie food because I heard they poop less on better food plus my cat is a little overweight. However, my cat seems to poop all the time! At least three times a day, maybe more. His poop is always pretty soft and wet (he doesn't cover it), and it really smells bad! Sorry to be graphic. Do you think this is normal or should I switch his food?

Natural Balance is a good-quality diet, as far as I know, anyway, and I feed it, along with other premium varieties. As far as toilet visits, well, cats are just like humans -- they vary according to the individual physiology and how much is eaten.

I suspect that cats are like people in that how often they poop can vary a lot. Mine poop about twice a day. They are fed on good quality wet food with a small amount of good quality dry for Mosi. I think Jaffa pooped less when he had a higher proportion of dry food in his diet, but I think that's just because he eats a greater volume of food now. I also think that he may have been dehydrated on the dry food and slightly constipated.

Most cats on light food poop 4 times a day vs 1 or 2 times for those on reg...

Hmm well that's interesting...and good to know. I just took Gizmo to the vet today for his shots/exam and the doctor said he could stand lose a little weight. He suggested moving him to a light food, which I was considering but now I think I'll just cut back on his regular food and maybe add more canned and see how he does with that. The last thing I need is more pooping.

We have a cat that has just recently started pooping outside of her litter box and we're going nuts. We have 2 cats. The oldest is great and doesn't have any issues. The 4 year old, however, is really trying our patience. I took her to the vet to see what they said and the vet said she was just fine, that it was behavioral. I bought some pheromone spray and I've been using that around the areas where she poops, but she's still not getting it. No change in diet aside from her evidently eating more. Same food - Science Diet Adult Hairball Formula as both cats are long haired.

We bought another litter box, so now we have the 1st one which is a very large corner unit plus this regular sized one. She uses both boxes but still finds the need to poop in the tub, on the floor next to the box, on the carpet, wherever. We've always felt that she had something wrong with her (behavior wise) as she was always EXTREMELY skiddish and she refuses to groom herself. She will NOT let us even get near her with a comb or brush so she ends up really ratty. She's a really sweet cat and loves to sit in my lap in the evenings, but we just can't let this keep on as we have a 3 year old daughter and a 4 month old son. He's already showing signs of wanting to crawl and we just can't have him somehow getting into cat feces due to her misbehavior.

Bottom line is that I've observered her now for the last month or so going poop anywhere from 5 - 8 times a day on a normal day. At times, I've seen her go up to 12. The only thing that I can figure is that she's stressed out or something and is overeating to compensate. I'm going to check with our vet about a food change, but I just didn't want to change anything in her diet to create more of an issue.

According to our vet, a cat should poop once daily and it should be solid. When one of ours started pooping out of the box, the fact that he was pooping 2-3 times daily, it was soft, and really smelly was an indication to our vet that it was a medical problem over a behavioral problem.

Here I go again, when my kittens were on CatChow, they ate all darn day and pooped at the very least 4 times a day, per cat. I scooped poop all day. 12 days on EVO. Each cat poops once or twice per day. The house doesn't smell like old farts any more either. Cat Chow = Taco Bell.

My baby-cat used to poop once a day but more often these days ever since I switched her food to Hill's prescription(both dry & wet about 50/50).
I talked to my vet yesterday. I was told to cut-down on the wet as it maybe the reason she poops often(and she gets quite stinky, too...err...sorry for TMI). I reduced the amount of wet and increased dried. Now she's constipating...

And the canned uses pork as a major ingredient. Some cats don't handle either ingredient well. Depending on your cat's diagnosis, there are other rx foods available. If baby-cat is not doing well on the Hill's, ask the vet to prescribe an alternative.

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Originally Posted by KKH

My baby-cat used to poop once a day but more often these days ever since I switched her food to Hill's prescription(both dry & wet about 50/50).
I talked to my vet yesterday. I was told to cut-down on the wet as it maybe the reason she poops often(and she gets quite stinky, too...err...sorry for TMI). I reduced the amount of wet and increased dried. Now she's constipating...

And the canned uses pork as a major ingredient. Some cats don't handle either ingredient well. Depending on your cat's diagnosis, there are other rx foods available. If baby-cat is not doing well on the Hill's, ask the vet to prescribe an alternative.

Pork? Ewwwww, didn't know that.

I talked to vet again & am told to keep combining the previous(Eukanuba) with Hill's for few more weeks to see how she's doing but definitely cut down on the wet one. Seems she finally pooped yesterday but not today yet(yes, I am checking it once in a while).

Update on our cat Chloe who was going 5-8 times a day. I had her groomed at the vet again and her behavior is better. I changed her over to Hill's Science Diet Indoor Cat formula and I'm not letting her "graze" throughout the day. She's being fed in the morning and evening now. She's still pooping on the floor, but much less. I'll have to post in the behavior section to see if anyone has suggestions for the behavior issues. Seems like the amount of food and type has helped considerably though with the number of poops per day and the smell.

Murray poops once a day, in the evening. Like clockwork. I think even when I had him on weight-control food awhile back, he still pooped just once a day.

BTW, his current food is Purina One for urinary tract health, transitioning to Royal Canin Urinary SO, and some Friskies Dental Diet mixed in. He eats all dry food - we experimented with wet food and it didn't last long.

You really should have an abdominal x-ray done. Our cat was doing the same thing, not grooming herself, 20lbs, peeing in litter and trying to poop but pooping in house too. Vet did x-ray and it turns out she has Megacolon. This is a condition where the colon becomes enlarged (happens quite a bit in overweight cats). She didnt poop for a week. The shelter we got her from was kind enough to take her to their vets. She required IV fluids and an enema. She is now confined to a bathroom in hopes that she will start to go soon with 2x daily lactulose and 1x daily laxatone. If you notice hard poop PLEASE take your cat to the vet. Our cat could have died.

It can be maintained with a low calorie diet (science diet w/d perscription formula) yes its got the crap in it but it also is helping her go and medications. She doesnt appear to be in as much pain. Without treatment (and sometimes even with) they may require surgery to remove the colon.